Didier Drogba, the disgruntled Chelsea striker, has described the past six
months as the worst of his career.

A little blue? Chelsea striker Didier Drogba started the game against Bordeaux on the benchPhoto: GETTY IMAGES

By Sandy Macaskill

11:46PM GMT 26 Nov 2008

Since being sent off in the Champions League final in May, Drogba has been injured and is serving a three-match domestic suspension for throwing a coin at spectators during the Carling Cup tie against Burnley at Stamford Bridge earlier this month.

Amid speculation that he has begun negotiations over a move to Inter Milan, he was asked, in a television interview recorded last week, if the period had been the toughest of his career to date. "Yes, you can say that," he said. "So many bad things have been said about me in the past few weeks."

The 30-year-old is contrite over the coin-throwing incident, but claims that too much emphasis was placed on his actions, rather than those who threw the coin in the first instance.

"It was a reaction," he said. "Maybe it was too much. But I think, as a human being, you have some reaction and after that you realise what you did. I feel like what I have done is really, really bad.

"It is normal for a football player to be criticised, but I think we need to be fair. I am disappointed that the only focus on me is my mistake. They don't even try to understand how it happened. I was celebrating scoring my first goal after a few months. I won't keep a good memory of this goal."

He also spoke of his disappointment at becoming only the second player to have been sent off in a Champions League final. He said: "I don't know how I put myself into these situations. During the game you do things you don't realise because your heart is beating."

Matters were made worse when former Chelsea assistant manager Henk Ten Cate went on record to reveal that the Ivorian would have taken the fifth penalty had he not been dismissed.

"Even if I took the penalty maybe I could have missed it," Drogba said. "It is easy to say Drogba is guilty for the loss, instead of saying that JT [John Terry] was unlucky."

Drogba has refused to comment about his alleged secret meeting in a London restaurant on Monday with Inter sporting director Marco Branca and Jorge Mendes, the agent to Inter manager Jose Mourinho. "I don't have anything to say," Drogba said. "I have always said I have a contract with Chelsea until 2010. No comment about the supposed meeting."

On Wednesday night Inter president Massimo Moratti claimed Drogba was not an immediate target. "I believe the desire is more the player's than anything else. We don't need any strikers," he said.

Meanwhile, AC Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti has blamed Chelsea's style of football for Andrei Shevchenko's failure in England. He said: "I don't think he was always allowed to express himself to his full potential as a striker."